Sculpture of us
by fixusi
Summary: The younger one shook his head. "Don't come near, I said", he repeated, straightening his back. Whatever it was that Fili had thrown at him had hit. And now he was bleeding.


An: I have some problems with school so my mind is one huge frickin' mess right now, but I have two hours to waste before I have to do stuff, so what's a better way to use that than write something for you guys? Hopefully this will take my mind off of the problems as well. :D

Kili and Fili are teenagers in this. I imagine Kili being something around 13 and Fili something around 15.

Disclaimer: I do not own Hobbit

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"For Mahal's sake, boys, be good", Dís groaned as her sons stood by the door, ready to leave. They both looked at their mother who had her hands on her hips and a tight expression on her face. "I mean it, alright? No fighting."

Fili nodded with a sigh, rolling his eyes as he quickly glanced at his little brother, who looked tense and annoyed. The blonde dwarf was annoyed too, but he knew better than to disagree with their mother. Kili, on the other hand, never thought about things like that when he wasn't all happy and full of energy like he usually was.

"It's not my fault, Fili's been talking back the whole day."  
"I have not!"  
"Yes, you have! Maybe you don't realize but it's starting to really pis-"

"BOYS!" Dís raised her voice and took a step forward, shaking her head. She was having none of it. "Either you _are_ good or you don't go. Am I clear? And that means both of you", she continued and eyed Kili. "You haven't exactly treated Fili nicely today either."

Thorin was having a birthday that evening, and the gift the brothers had been preparing for a week already was almost done, it only needed the last few details and paint. The threat of not being allowed to finish the gift was something that quieted Kili as well - he wanted to finish the gift more than anything else. It was a small but beautiful wooden sculpture of the four of them, Dís, Fili, Kili and Thorin. They would paint it with the colors they had in their clothes and hair to make it look more realistic, and give it to Thorin the same evening. They were sure he'd love it.

"We will be good", Kili muttered, flashing a sheepish grin at their mother. "I give you my word."  
"We promise, mom", Fili said too, and looked at her with his best pleading eyes. They needed to get the gift done on time, Dís couldn't take that away from them.

A small smile spread on Dís lips and she let her hands drop from her hips. "Fine. But a word of warning.. if I hear that you two have been fighting in there, you will not be having any of the good foods today, only potatoes."

Even that was better than not having any gift for their uncle.

Fili smirked, nodding. "We won't fight, mom. Trust us." He knew that Kili was unusually annoyed at everyone that day, and that they would argue once they got out of their front door, but what you didn't know couldn't hurt you, right?

So they stepped out of the front door to a warm summer day. After a few minutes of walking in silence Kili had to take off his long sleeved shirt, because it really was warm. Fili was happy that Kili kept quiet, because honestly, he was full of arguing and fighting already. He did not know why Kili was so goddamn annoyed that day, but he was, and he really didn't enjoy it.

"We still need to carve the faces", Kili said after a minute. "Whose do you want to do? Mom's or Thorin's?"

Contemplating his answer - he wanted to make Thorin's, but he knew Kili wanted to as well - Fili scratched his neck. "Umm, I don't care. You decide."

"You do uncle's, okay? You're better anyways", Kili said with some annoyance in his voice. "Like you said earlier, I'm bad at everything I do. So you do Thorin, I don't want to mess it all up."

A deep sigh escaped Fili's lips. "Oh, come on, Kili. How old were you again?"

"Always younger than you", Kili answered, mimicking Fili's voice. "Thanks, it's great to know that I have a big brother who cares so much."

The older one didn't bother to answer. Seriously, what on middle earth was up with Kili today?

After ten or so minutes they reached Bofur's workshop. That was the place they had borrowed all the things they needed to in order to craft the wood. They had tried it with ordinary knives and swords, but they hadn't been as good as Bofur's things. He even let them work in there, on the floor, and leave the unfinished sculpture there.

So, once again they walked inside and greeted Bofur with smiles.

"Good morning, lads, you're quite early today", came an answer as he turned around on his little chair. He had an unfinished small wooden pony on his desk, still a little weird-looking, but definitely a pony.

Kili nodded. "Yeah, uncle's birthday is today, and we are in bit of a hurry."

Bofur raised his eyebrows and glanced at Fili. "Oh, is it today? How did I think it would be tomorrow!" He grinned and nodded to himself, looking a little confused but somewhat amused at the same time. You never knew what was going on in his head. "You need to finish it today then", he added, but it was more like a question.

"Kind of", Fili grinned. "Wouldn't like to give it to him tomorrow since we're celebrating today. Are the tools still where we left them?"

"Aye, they are", Bofur said with a nod. "I need to visit someone really quickly soon, but I think you lads will manage for a while. I will close the door so nobody gets in, you will be perfectly safe."

"It's alright", the youngest of them replied, and in matter of minutes they were on the floor again with the tools and the piece of wood.

Fili held it in his hands, eyeing it. It was great even unfinished. Bofur had just left, and now it was the two of them again. Kili was sitting next to Fili, concentrating on sharpening the small tool they would use to make the eyes and the mouths. The floor beneath them was a little scarred - a knife had slipped from their hands once or twice - but Bofur hadn't minded, thank Mahal for that. _That happens to everyone_, had he said.

After a few more minutes of sharpening it, Kili gave the small edged knife thingy to Fili. "You can start", he told his brother. Fili took the tool and thanked Kili, carefully starting to measure where to put the eyes. Not too far from each other but not too close either, and not too down and not too up, not too big... man, it was harder than he'd thought.

Just as Fili had started to carve the first eye, Kili moved his leg, accidentally kicking Fili. The knife slipped and caused a long, quite deep scratch on Thorin's face. For a few seconds they both were quiet.

"Now look what you did!" Fili then yelled, shoving Kili. It had been okay that Kili had been annoying _and _annoyed the whole day, but Thorin's gift had been unique and perfect and everything they had wanted to give him! And now- "It's ruined!"

Kili stood up as Fili did so, yelling "I didn't mean to!" He was just as upset as Fili was - it had been better than any gift would ever be, and now it had a hole in it! And now all the frustration that had been building up inside him for the whole day just came to surface, and Kili felt like he could hit someone. His anger turned into tears and even though he didn't want to, one of those escaped his eye.

As Fili saw this, he rolled his eyes. "You baby", he hissed. "You ruined this and now you're crying? Guess what, it won't undo what you just did!"

"I'm not a baby!" Kili yelled, taking a small step towards his brother. "I hate you, Fili!"

"And I hate you! I really do, okay? This would have been perfect if it wasn't for you!"

"Well I'm sorry for wanting to give him something too! And it was my idea, you idiot, so without me you wouldn't even be here!"

Fili had never felt like hitting his baby brother before. But now he did. Controlling himself even a little bit, he shoved Kili again. "You ruined it, Kili! Do you understand that? It's ruined, it's ugly, it's- worthless!"

"Don't touch me!" Kili screamed, pushing Fili back. Then the younger one spun around, hurt from his brother's words, and stormed away from him. "I swear that if you touch me again, I will tell mom that you hit me."

And that was the biggest threat of all. Telling mom something like that meant that Fili would be grounded for weeks, and since it was summer, that would be the worst possible thing to happen. "You wouldn't", Fili hissed, his eyes flashing in anger.

"I would, and I will, that's a promise", Kili snarled and crossed his arms. Then, out of nowhere, an object came flying towards Kili and before Kili could react, it hit him right between the eyes. He let out a cry and doubled, the object hitting the ground with a loud thump.

Kili could feel blood oozing from between his fingers he held on the place the object had hit, and suddenly he wasn't that angry anymore, just hurt and scared. He knew that Fili had thrown that. He didn't want to be scared, but he was - he didn't want Fili to hurt him.

It took Fili a millisecond to realize that it had hit his brother and that it hurt, but he was glued to where he was standing. All he could feel was remorse and worry over his stupid and annoying little brother, but he couldn't force his body to move. He was too ashamed to do anything, really.

"Don't come near me", Kili hissed and backed away a little as Fili took a step forward. He could feel his left eye starting to swell. Perfect.  
"You're bleeding, let me help", Fili tried to say, his voice quiet now. "I didn't mean that. I didn't want it to actually hit you."

The younger one shook his head. "Don't come near, I said", he repeated, straightening his back. Whatever it was that Fili had thrown at him had hit his nose and the corner of his left eye. He could feel an open gash on his nose that bled like hell, and his eye ached already.

Fili nodded. "Okay", he replied, running his hands through his hair. He had no idea what to do now. He had thrown the sculpture at his brother, and he could see it on the floor - it hadn't broken or anything, but that didn't matter to him anymore - and he could also see how much blood came out of Kili's nose. From experience Fili knew that an injury like that wasn't serious, but it looked ugly and hurt.

And then the door opened and Kili spun around, only to see Bofur step in. The toymaker froze as he saw Kili's face and for a second he just stood there, trying to figure out what had happened.

"I threw something at him, I didn't mean it to hit", Fili quickly said, ducking his head.

Bofur sighed, rubbing his forehead a little. "Alright. Come, Kili, let's get you cleaned up. Fili, wait here, please", Bofur told them and soon Fili was alone in there, and it was too quiet for his liking.

To kill time Fili started to fix the sculpture. He found out that he could hide most of the accidental cut by adding some hair on Thorin's face. It was still visible, but it wasn't that disturbing. It was quite okay, really.

More time passed and as Kili didn't return, Fili did all of the faces except Thorin's. Then he started to paint the clothes and the hair, starting with the one on the right -Dís- and then continuing to Kili, then himself, and finally Thorin. Then he put it to dry and started to clean up their mess.

He had cleaned up the room for maybe two or three minutes when Kili and Bofur returned. Kili's eye was _almost_ swollen shut, but the cut on his nose wasn't that big or deep. Fili sighed in relief when Kili didn't flinch or tell him to leave when he went to hug his brother, instead Kili returned the hug with pleasure.

"I'm sorry", Fili sighed and shook his head a bit. "I didn't mean to do that."

"I should apologize, not you, I've been horrible today", Kili answered and pulled away from the hug. "I just.. I was stressed out because of the gift. I wanted it to be perfect, you know?"

"But it is", Fili said with a grin. "It looks like we did it, so it's... better than picture-perfect painting of us."

Kili couldn't help a laugh. "That's actually true. Where is it now? Did you finish it?"

"Almost", Fili told him. "I saved you the best part. You can make uncle Thorin's face."

The smile that spread on Kili's lips was wide and genuine, and Fili liked it. He felt bad for being such an awful big brother, but on the other hand, now they weren't arguing anymore. Maybe he hadn't failed his job that badly then.

"Really? That's great", Kili laughed and picked up the sculpture from the table. The paint was almost dry, not exactly, but dry enough to be able to touch it gently. So he sat back down and picked up the pointy knife thing and started to work.

Bofur laughed a little. "You two really are half-wits."

Half an hour later they were finished. The paint was completely dry and they had cleaned up and even helped Bofur to paint one little toy. Kili held the sculpture in his hands and felt proud as he watched it. It was great as it was. Fili had done amazing job while painting it, not coloring over the lines or anything like that. His eye ached too much for him to like it, but it was bearable.

"Hey, we're leaving now", Fili said to Bofur, who was trying to finish the pony. He turned around and got up, and walked to the boys who stood by the open door.

"You wish him a happy birthday from me too, lads", Bofur told them as the brothers stepped out of the workshop, and smiled a little. Fili promised to do so, as well as did Kili.

"Thank you for letting us use your tools", Fili continued.

"And thanks for helping me clean up", Kili laughed, ducking his head. "Oh Mahal. What am I going to tell mom?"

xx

"Kili, what on Mahal's name have you done to yourself?" was their mother's first sentence when they reached their home. She didn't care about the beautiful sculpture that Fili was holding, all she could see was Kili's swollen eye and the wound. In seconds she was in front of Kili, examining the wound carefully. "Who hit you?"

Fili eyed his brother. He knew he would get caught sooner or later, if not now, tomorrow. Kili couldn't possibly come up with anything their mother would believe.

"It's nothing, mom. Nobody hit me, I promise." And well, that was the truth.

"Then what happened? Something must've hit you hard, your eye looks so bad." Her voice was worried and angry, like she was waiting for Kili to tell her some names - people who would be dead in close future.

Kili looked uneasy. "It.. I just fell. I didn't mean to, it was stupid and awkward, but I fell and hit my nose to a chair on my way down. Fili saw it, right?"

"Yeah. You should have seen him", Fili quickly said, forcing a laugh out. "He looked like he was trying to fly."

Dís glared at the both of them for a short while, as if she was trying to make out if they were lying or not. Seemed like she decided that they were telling the truth, and nodded. Fili knew a rant was coming, and so did Kili, and they weren't wrong. But anything was better than being grounded or yelled at.

After Dís was finished ranting she ordered them to clean up and put themselves ready. As they were in the safety of their own room, Fili started to laugh. "Mom really believed you", he chuckled and glanced at his little brother. "Maybe you aren't so dumb after all."

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soo... reviews are love! This ends pretty quickly, but I'm super tired and yeah. Hope you liked it!


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